Gurez, Aug 7: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah again urged the Centre to restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir without further delay.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the National Trible Festival at Gurez, Omar said a lot of time has passed since the Government of India assured the Supreme Court that statehood would be returned at the earliest.
“When the court gave its ruling in the Article 370 case, there were two important aspects. “One was related to elections — that they should be conducted within a timeframe. The other was statehood. The court clearly said statehood should be restored as soon as possible. Now, a lot of time has passed since then. We want Jammu and Kashmir to become a state again as soon,” he said.
On Wednesday, Omar said he has written to several parties with a sizeable presence in Parliament, seeking their support for the introduction of a bill for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood in the ongoing Monsoon session.
“I have written a letter to all those parties who have a good number of MPs in Parliament and requested them to help on the promise made to Jammu and Kashmir on statehood and raise the issue in Parliament so that a bill is brought in this session itself and Jammu and Kashmir gets its statehood back,” Abdullah told reporters here.
He said the issue was not of an individual or a party, or even a government, “it is about the promise made to the people of J&K”.
“The promise was made in public rallies, in the Supreme Court, and in Parliament. We want the promise to be fulfilled,” he added.
On the Supreme Court likely to hear a plea for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood on August 8, Abdullah said the restoration should come through the court if the government does not do it.
“It is a good thing, and I hope the Supreme Court keeps in mind that when they gave a judgment on the August 5 case (in December 2023), they had said that the statehood should be restored as soon as possible.
“Now, many years have passed, but we have not got it yet,” he said.
He said that had the SC not set a deadline for conducting assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, “perhaps I would not have been talking to you as the chief minister today”.
“The elections were held because the SC had set a deadline, and the elections were held in that time frame. We want that much time has passed now, and if it (restoration of statehood) does not come through the government, then it should come through the court,” he said.
The CM’s outreach comes amidst a growing demand for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood. His push is a renewed effort to hold the Centre accountable for its commitment to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
On July 29, Abdullah wrote a letter to the presidents of 42 political parties, including Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, urging them to press the Centre to bring legislation in the Monsoon session to restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, saying it must not be viewed as a concession, but as an essential course correction.
He wrote that downgrading a state to a union territory sets a “profound and unsettling” precedent and is a “constitutional red line” that “must never be crossed”.
“The act of reducing Jammu and Kashmir from a state to a union territory in 2019 and the prolonged delay in restoring its status as a full state… has profound implications for the future of Indian polity,” the three-page letter stated.
“The restoration (of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir) must not be viewed as a concession, but as an essential course correction – one that prevents us from sliding down a dangerous and slippery slope where the statehood of our constituent states is no longer regarded as a foundational and sacred constitutional right but reduced instead to a discretionary favour bestowed at the will of the central government,” the letter said.